President orders payment of salary arrears

Congolese President Denis Sassou-Nguesso has asked his government to pay November 1999 salary arrears owed to all civil servants. In a communiqué broadcast on Sunday on national television, the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Budget said arrangements had been made to ensure payments were properly done. There has been public pressure for the government to inject its oil revenue windfall into improving health and education; gradually paying salary arrears and pensions; as well as honouring student scholarships. Since January 2005, the country has earned at least 380 billion francs CFA (US $700.3 million) in additional oil revenue. Congo has been implementing an International Monetary Fund programme since October 2004 under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility. The programme, which runs until 2007, will allow Congo access to the Fund's Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative. This initiative would, it is hoped, reduce the county's $5.5-billion debt. Sassou-Nguesso's directive marks the second time that the government has agreed to pay salary arrears for 1999. In 2004, it paid the December 1999 arrears. The Congolese Trade Union Confederation has said the government has, since 1992, amassed 23 months of salary arrears.